The Rossignol Vezor. All pictures: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The Rossignol Vezor ($180) comes from a model with a protracted historical past throughout a spread of mountain sports activities and is certainly one of their two debut path footwear. Manufacturers like Rossignol, which is most well-known as a winter mountain gear and outerwear producer, typically like to check their knowledgeable technical information throughout a spread of slopes, faces, rock escarpments, and trails. They’ve now utilized their design savvy and product engineering to path trainers. The brand new Vezor mannequin made its debut on the 2024 UTMB, and after turning heads in Chamonix, it continued to achieve traction all through the 2025 path working season. To see whether it is worthy of a summit, I put the shoe to work over variable terrains and situations this summer time and fall. Can Rossignol play throughout the dust, rocks, and scree? Let’s see.
Alpine manufacturers deliver to the desk a wealth of fabric experience and an innate concern for the local weather. Rossignol realizes that product design has a direct affect on the setting and, concurrently, the flexibility to pursue mountain sports activities is inextricably linked to our ever-evolving setting. This can be a shoe overview, and I’ll keep on track, however it is very important word that there’s an environmental consciousness and energy to combine recycled supplies into the totality of the shoe design with out sacrificing the efficiency of the ultimate product. Rossingol’s path shoe enterprise may be an indication that alpine situations are altering, and the brand new launch is a enterprise technique to remain within the mountains all yr spherical in some capability.
The Vezor has a listed 30-millimeter heel stack and 24-millimeter forefoot stack for a 6-millimeter drop — a smidge increased than I often enable myself to put on. Regardless of the upper stack top, the look and journey each make it appear nearer to the bottom, an vital element to its total versatile efficiency and path presence. The shoe has an precise weight of 9.6 ounces (271 grams) for a U.S. males’s 9, which is par for the course for a lot of mountain path footwear.
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Rossignol Vezor Higher
A lateral view of the Rossignol Vezor.
Vivid crimson is the signature colorway for the Rossignol Vezor higher on each the ladies’s and males’s sides, and it stands out whereas on the transfer. The boys’s model additionally is available in blue, and the ladies’s is on the market in pink. One other notable function is the prolonged and barely diagonal lacing system that traits medially down towards a slim toebox. It provides an fascinating verve to the Vezor’s look, as does the elongated tab on the heel, which capabilities each as a pull tab and Achilles protector.
The final is slim, and the higher maintains that tight look and match. The shoe qualifies as tremendous slim and one which I’d advocate to individuals who have blade-like toes and luxuriate in working quick. The slim high quality was exhausting to come back to phrases with initially, however I wished to discover extra because the rearfoot and midsole impressed a novel expertise. The snugness felt applicable, however it was almost unforgiving within the toebox. Happily, the prolonged lacing system has the capability to marginally launch the higher from a restricted wrap with double lace holes at three distinct areas. This allowed me to dial within the match at a extra exact degree for extra quantity and rest. I’m used to wide-toebox footwear and uppers with extra forgiveness, just like the VJ MAXx 2or footwear with a BOA lacing system, just like the One other Mont Blanc BOA.
Rossignol confirmed extra forethought about precision match. The shoe includes a detachable insole system with three customizable choices, which furthered my potential to make it work not just for testing, however for expertise and pleasure. I actually wished to make it work, and it will definitely did.
The principally recycled higher materials is a breathable engineered mesh atop an intensive underlay internet for further assist and superior midfoot wrapping. It’s each snag-resistant and technically resilient if venturing off-trail or via fell-like environments. The toebox has a suitably thick TPU bumper and a solidly constructed heel, notably on the medial facet. I appreciated the latter together with an outsole goat-hoof design that enhanced the shoe’s potential to sort out camber and technical trails.
The heel collar isn’t overly cushioned however padded sufficient for consolation — all a runner wants for a shoe just like the Vezor. When it comes to prioritizing match over consolation, the tongue is slim, mild, and connected with a versatile mesh. It’s a contact of utility and a clever choice for locating ample match with out bulk. There weren’t any alarming flex or rubbing factors, just a few remodeling of the lacing and insole layering for extra room and extra miles.
Rossignol Vezor Midsole
A medial view of the Rossignol Vezor.
One motive I wished to make the ultra-slim Rossignol Vezor work was that the underfoot expertise genuinely has extra cushion and rebound than what I’m accustomed to. I’ll admit that I preferred the upper cushion and amplified propulsion as a result of it feels just like the shoe is giving again. I cost uphill with renewed confidence and sort out the singletrack like I’m sporting an aggressive VJ. It jogs my memory of a cross between the Altra Mont Blanc Carbon and VJ MAXx2.
The Vezor midsole is uncommon in its twin EVA foam mixture. The fascinating half is the layering design, which appears reverse to commonest midsole stacks, however appears to work for the Vezor. The highest foam layer is known as high-rebound EVA, and the decrease is a nitrogen-infused supercritical EVA. The highest foam is geared extra towards delivering a responsive really feel, whereas the underside layer is designed for extra cushioning and grip help.
Between the 2 foams is a composite Diapazon+ plate, which seems a bit like a tuning fork beneath the forefoot and has small winglets that cradle the foot additional again. The plate provides stability each laterally and rotationally whereas augmenting foam propulsion. I wouldn’t say that it capabilities as a rock plate, however it maintains midsole integrity.
On the expense of redundancy, I wished to check the Vezor, a shoe usually exterior my purview, as a result of the underfoot propulsion and cushioned safety supplied a renewed working spirit throughout brief to mid-distance path adventures. The shoe is able to rather a lot, and it will possibly actually pack a punch.
Rossignol Vezor Outsole
The outsole of the Rossignol Vezor.
Since I have a tendency towards grippy footwear, the Rossignol Vezor Michelin Formulation rubber outsole is tops in my e book. It really works effectively throughout all situations, even the dry granitic soils that gown Southern Oregon’s hills. The Vezor wears the outsole modestly, however with surety.
The lugs vary from three to 4 millimeters, entrance to again, and are multi-directional, permitting for steering management on more difficult terrain and suppleness on tamer runs. I’d word that the street working sections are doable because the shoe owns a decrease profile and cushioned propulsive system. The heel is hoofed with a midsole reveal down the center, and there’s one other midsole flex level within the midfoot of the outsole. The rearfoot hoof and foam reveal provides to the Vezor’s versatility. There’s a time for a full rubber interface, and there’s a time when the shoe must grip and flex.
Rossignol Vezor General Impressions
A high view of the Rossignol Vezor.
As a debut path shoe from an out of doors model identified principally for winter sports activities, the Rossignol Vezor is a exceptional make and mannequin. Rossignol’s historical past in outerwear and gear shines via with a considerate, sturdy design.
The shoe is slim, and modifications on whole quantity and forefoot house are areas that want changes in future generations. I’ve run in narrower footwear, just like the VJ Lightspeed and doubtless a handful of Nikes a long time in the past, however the tightness was solely a problem on the outset. There are methods to switch the shoe to make it work for wider toes and splayed toes, however narrower toes may have a greater first go.
The cushion — which isn’t excessive — and propulsive expertise is what drew me in and saved me within the shoe. For an absence of a extra suave approach to say it, working within the Vezor is enjoyable, and I appreciated the rapid motivation to maintain transferring ahead. The mixture of the twin foams and plate heightened this expertise.
I put on the Vezor for speedier mid-distance runs. Since it’s slim, I additionally discover it excellent for shorter runs. The outsole materials will preserve this shoe transferring via all seasons, which is one other bonus. Properly performed, Rossignol.
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- Have you ever run within the Rossignol Vezor? What was your expertise?
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